Transportation and the Economy

Transportation and the Economy

Productivity in various parts of the transportation
sector
(chapter 2, section G)

Labor
productivity for the rail sector increased 50 percent from 1995 to 2005.
Despite a decline of 6 percent between 2000 and 2001, air transportation labor
productivity grew 43.2 percent over the entire period. [G-1]

Multifactor
productivity of all business sectors combined increased 17 percent, while
multifactor productivity in rail and air transportation increased by 50.5 and
42.4 percent, respectively, from 1995 to 2005. [G-2]

Transportation-related
demand accounted for over 10.3 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in
2005. This broad measure includes
consumer and government purchases of goods and services ranging from vehicles, fuels,
and insurance to road building and public transportation. [G-5]

The contribution of for-hire transportation services to the U.S. economy, as measured by their value added (or net output), increased (in
chained 2000 dollars) from $242.7 billion in 1995 to $335.2 billion in 2005. In the same time period, this segment's share in the GDP fluctuated slightly,
at around 3 percent. [G-4]

Over 13
million people worked in a transportation-related job in the United States in 2006. That is equal to approximately 1 out of every 10 workers. [G-6]

U.S.
households spent $8,344, on average, on transportation in 2005 - second in
spending behind housing. [G-15]

Driving an
automobile 15,000 miles per year cost $0.52 per mile in 2005, or 24 percent
more than it did in 1995, when total costs per mile were $0.42. [G-18]

The
average transit fare increased from 88 to $1.02 between 1995 and 2005. [G-16]

On
average, intercity trips via Amtrak cost $56.45 in 2006, up 30 percent from
$43.31 in 1996. Meanwhile, average intercity Class I bus fares rose 32 percent,
from $22.9 to $30.1, between 1996 and 2002. [G-16]

The
RITA/BTS " U.S.
origin only" Air Travel Price Index (ATPI) increased 14 percent between the
first quarter of 1995 and the fourth quarter of 2006. During the same period,
the ATPI "Foreign origin only" index decreased 5 percent. [G-17]

Box 2
Government Transportation Revenues and Expenditures

The
Research and Innovative Technology Administration's Bureau of Transportation
Statistics gathers Government Transportation Financial Statistics (GTFS) data
from various sources - including the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S.
Census Bureau, the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Aviation
Administration, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Saint Lawrence
Seaway Development Corporation, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, and other federal government agencies - that provide statistics on
transportation-related revenues and expenditures of the federal, state and
local governments for all modes of transportation. GTFS also contains federal
budget authority and obligations, and grants to state and local governments.
Statistics on federal expenditures, budget authority and obligations are
provided at the agency and program level.